Return to home1000
Gunpowder was invented in China about this time.
(V.D.-H.K.p.179)

1250 China began manufacturing
guns.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)

1271 Aug, Jacob, an
Italian-Jewish trader, arrived at the harbor of Zaitun in southeast
China, 4-years before Marco Polo arrived. He wrote a manuscript that
surfaced in 1997, translated by David Selbourne, a British scholar.
Jacob described printing with movable wooden type, paper money, free
daily newspapers, mass-circulation booklets, use of gunpowder, the
practice of foot-binding, and tea-drinking. He also noted a lot of
pornography and a liberated female sexuality. He described a foreign
community with some 2,000 Jews and a great number of Muslims as well
as Africans and Europeans and the oncoming threat of a Mongol
invasion.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.A23)

1526 In Italy the Beretta
family made crossbows. With advancing technology the family launched
into firearms (1550).
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(Econ, 11/18/06, p.64)

1550 In Italy the Beretta
family branched into guns.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)

1657 By this time the White
Tower of London was no longer inhabited by royalty and was almost
completely given over to the storage of gunpowder.
(Hem, 9/04, p.28)

1671 Charles II banned anyone
without property worth £100 a year from owning guns, bows or
ferrets. Game stocks were the motive.
(Econ, 6/5/10, p.63)

1675 Aug 27, The Strasbourg
Agreement, signed between France and the Holy Roman Empire, banned
the use of poison bullets in conflict.
(AP, 12/4/12)

1689 Dec 16, English Parliament
adopted a Bill of Rights after Glorious Revolution. The Bill of
Rights included a right to bear arms.
(MC, 12/16/01)(WSJ, 8/6/02, p.D6)

1718 May 15, James Puckle, a
London lawyer, patented the world's 1st machine gun.
(MC, 5/15/02)

1769 Aug 18, Gunpowder in
Brescia, Italy, church exploded and some 3,000 were killed.
(MC, 8/18/02)

1852 Smith & Wesson founded
its business in Springfield, Mass. Horace Smith, a toolmaker, and
Daniel Wesson, a former apprenticed gunsmith, combined their skills
to produce a revolutionary handgun.
(WSJ, 9/12/97, p.A20)(SSFC, 1/28/07, p.F3)

1893 The governor of Texas said
the "mission of the concealed deadly weapon is murder. To check it
is the duty of every self-respecting, law-abiding man."
(http://tinyurl.com/d337x96)

1895 Chinese authorities
discovered a consignment of some 1000 revolvers hidden in casks of
cement that had been shipped by the Scientific Agricultural Society,
a group organized by Sun Yat-sen aiming to overthrow the Qing
emperor.
(ON, 10/08, p.6)

1928 San Francisco’s Pacific
Rod and Club was formed. In 1934 it moved to a site at Lake Merced
with a month-to-month lease.
(SFC, 7/17/12, p.C2)

1928 Gun control, the Law on
Firearms and Ammunition, was introduced to Germany under the Weimar
regime (there was no Right to Arms in the Constitution of 1919) in
large part to disarm the nascent private armies, e.g. the Nazi SA
(aka "the brownshirts"). The Weimar government was attempting to
bring some stability to German society and politics.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_legislation_in_Germany)

1932 May 5, O’Bryan Bemis was
found dead at the California Rod and Gun club range at Fort Funston
after a good day at the track.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)

1934 The Pacific Rod and Gun
Club moved into a new 13-acre city-owned facility at Lake Merced in
San Francisco.
(SFC, 3/20/08, p.A1)

1938 Alfred Flatow (1869-1942),
Jewish gymnast and three-time, first-place medalist in the 1896
Olympics, fled to the Netherlands. He was later arrested by the
Nazis for possession of guns following their occupation of the
Netherlands. Flatow was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration
camp in 1942 where he was starved to death.
(SFC, 7/17/14,
p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Flatow)

1939 May 15, US Supreme
Court Justice James McReynolds in the US vs. Miller case said that
the 2nd Amendment did not bar restrictions on the ownership of
sawed-off shotguns, because the regulations did not have a
"reasonable relationship" to militias. A District Court had held
that section eleven of the National firearms Act violates the Second
Amendment. It accordingly sustained the demurrer and quashed the
indictment. The Supreme Court rejected the decision of the lower
court.
(USAT, 12/23/98,
p.10A)(www.hoboes.com/Politics/Firearms/miller/)

1954 May 14, The US military
unveiled a Nike guided missile at the SF Presidio. Plans were to
ring 13 critical areas in the US with such missiles.
(SFC, 5/14/04, p.F5)

1954 The Uzi machine gun was
first made by Israel Military Industries. Uzi Gal, the inventor of
Israel's Uzi submachine gun, died in Philadelphia after a long
illness in 2002. The Netherlands was the 1st country outside Israel
to buy Uzis in 1958.
(AP, 9/9/02)(SFC, 9/10/02, p.A16)

1968 Oct 22, Pres. Johnson
signed the Gun Control Act of 1968. It regulated firearms above
.50-caliber as destructive devices and required registration and
owner’s fingerprints. It also banned the sale of handguns to those
under 21. Enforcement was up to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms (BATF). It barred the import of assault weapons even if
they were reconfigured if they were not found to have legitimate
"sporting purposes." In the wake of the Kennedy and King
assassinations the US Congress expanded gun ownership prohibitions
to include dishonorably discharged veterans and other groups.
(WSJ, 3/24/97, p.A12)(SFC,10/17/97,
p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/p9lslc)(WSJ, 12/16/03, p.A4)(Econ, 12/4/10,
p.44)

1974 Taser, a voltage emitting
handgun, was created. In 2004 the handheld device fired 2 probes up
21 feet with a peak load of 50,000 volts. Jack Cover (d.2009 at 88),
a NASA researcher, began developing the Taser in 1969 to combat
hijackings and riots. The initial name, TSER, came from the 1911
book “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle." The additional “a" in the
name was added later. The Los Angeles Police Dept. began using the
devices in 1980.
(USAT, 7/4/04,
p.2A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser)(SFC, 2/16/09, p.B3)

1984 William P. Lear Jr., son
of business jet entrepreneur Bill Lear, Sr., engaged with a small
group of gun-running entrepreneurs in buying arms, ammunition and
other Soviet military equipment from the Warsaw Pact countries. In
2003 he authored “Fly Fast… Sin Boldly: Flying, Spying &
Surviving."
(AH, 6/03, p.63)

1986 Dec 17, Eugene Hasenfus,
the American convicted by Nicaragua for his part in running guns to
the Contras, was pardoned, then released.
(AP, 12/17/97)

1986 Gun-rights groups
successfully lobbied for law allowing firearms to be transported
across state lines.
(WSJ, 12/16/03, p.A4)

1987 May 14, A Colt revolver,
the Peacemaker of 1873, sold at auction for $242,000.
(http://tinyurl.com/ps7vw)

1987 Sep 1, In California S.
Brian Wilson, Vietnam veteran, had his legs sliced off when a
munitions train at the Concord Naval Weapons Station ran him over
during the Nuremberg Actions protest against weapons shipments to
Central America.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A19)(AP, 9/1/97)

1991 Hungarian officials
discovered 11 tons of rocket launchers and automatic weapons being
loaded on trucks headed for Croatia in violation of a UN arms
embargo. They had been labeled as Chilean humanitarian aid for Sri
Lanka. In 2009 former Chilean Army Gen. Guillermo Letelier and Air
Force Gen. Vicente Rodriguez were sentenced to prison for shipping
arms to Croatia at the time of its battle for independence from
Yugoslavia.
(AP, 6/10/09)

1993 Jul 1, In San Francisco
Gian Luigi Ferri opened fire with a TEC-DC9 semiautomatic pistol at
the 34th floor law offices of Petit & Martin at 101 California
St. He killed 8 people, wounded six and then committed suicide.
(SFC, 1/31/97, p.A20)(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A17)(SFEC,
5/2/99, p.A11)

1993 Nov 10, The U.S. House of
Representatives passed the so-called "Brady Bill," which called for
a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases.
(AP, 11/10/98)

1993 Nov 20, The U.S. Senate
ended a filibuster against the Brady Bill, which imposed a five-day
waiting period for handgun purchases, and passed it by a 63-36 vote;
the Senate also approved legislation implementing the North American
Free Trade Agreement, 61-38.
(AP, 11/20/98)

1993 Nov 24, The US Congress
gave its final approval to the Brady handgun control bill. It
established a 5-day waiting period for handgun sales.
(AP, 11/24/98)

1993 Nov 30, President Clinton
signed into law the Brady bill, which required a five-day waiting
period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective
buyers.
(AP, 11/30/98)

1994 Feb 28, Brady Law,
imposing a wait-period to buy a hand-gun, went into effect. It
amended a 1968 law that prohibited felons from buying guns and
imposed a 5-day waiting period for handgun purchases to allow for a
criminal record check.
(MC, 2/28/02)(SFC, 12/4/96, p.A5)

1994 Shooters at Lake Merced’s
Pacific Rod and Gun Club in SF, Ca., stopped using lead shot and
switched to biodegradable targets following a 1993 environmental
study. During the 1980s some 128 tons of lead were removed from the
site. In 2005 lead contamination was reported to be 10 times higher
than the 1993 study and efforts to raise the water level were put on
hold. Clean-up costs at Lake Merced were later estimated at over
$10.5 million.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.B1)(SFC, 7/17/12, p.C2)

1995 Apr 26, The US Supreme
Court led by Chief Justice William Rehnquist overturned a federal
law banning gun possession near schools on the grounds that it was
beyond the scope of congress power to regulate interstate commerce.
(SSFC, 9/4/05, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/6zlv6)

1995 Jun 30, President
Clinton, speaking in Chicago, proposed an even tighter ban on
armor-piercing handgun ammunition known as "cop-killer" bullets.
(AP, 6/30/00)

1995 Oct 22, President Clinton,
campaigning in San Francisco for California Democrats, demanded that
schools expel gun-toting students after earlier accusing Republicans
of plotting to gut his education package.
(AP, 10/22/00)

1995 Canada enacted a tough
federal Firearms Act. It was upheld in 2000 and required all gun
owners to registers all firearms with police by 2003. In 2009 plans
were afoot to repeal the long-gun (rifles and shotguns) registry,
dismantling some 8 million firearms records.
(WSJ, 6/16/00, p.A1)(SSFC, 11/8/09, p.A10)

1995 The Christian Council of
Mozambique launched a project to bring peace and reconciliation to
the country and to disarm thousands of former combatants. The
program paid artists to turn retrieved weapons into sculptures.
(SFC, 11/9/12, p.A7)

1996 A Utah law granted a
concealed weapons permit to anyone who is 21 or older, who can prove
“good character" and attends a short firearms course.
(WSJ, 5/24/04, p.A6)

1997 Jul 1, In the UK a new
handgun law took effect as a result of the 1996 massacre at the
school in Dunblane, Scotland.
(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.A13)

1997 The Joint Direct Attack
Munition (JDAM) became operational under a joint US Air Force-Navy
program. It was GPS for guidance and was 1st used in Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 4/8/03, p.A10)

1999 Feb 11, A federal jury in
New York found several gun makers responsible in three area
shootings for letting guns fall into the hands of criminals; other
manufacturers were cleared. Several gun manufacturers were found
negligent for marketing and distribution practices but awarded
limited damages. The plaintiffs suffered a setback in 2001 when the
New York Court of Appeals invalidated such claims.
(SFC, 2/12/99, p.A3)(AP, 2/11/04)

1999 May 12, The US Senate
rejected 51 to 47 a Democratic proposal that would have required
background checks for firearms sales at gun-shows. A GOP proposal
for voluntary checks passed 53 to 45.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.A3)

1999 May 13, The GOP leadership
agreed to approve background checks for all buyers at gun shows
following angry calls from constituents.
(WSJ, 5/14/99, p.A1)

1999 May 14, The US Senate
approved a Republican plan to require background checks at gunshows
48-47.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A3)

2000 Mar 17, Smith and Wesson
signed an unprecedented agreement with the Clinton administration
to, among other things, include safety locks with all of its
handguns to make them more childproof; in return, the agreement
called for federal, state and city lawsuits against the gun maker to
be dropped.
(AP, 3/17/01)

2000 May 14, In Washington DC
tens of thousands took part in the Million Mom March for tougher gun
laws.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A1)

2001 Jan 1, In Canada a new
federal gun control measure went into effect. It called for the
licensing and registration of all shotguns and hunting rifles.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A16)

2001 May 14, Promising to be a
"determined adversary" toward gun violence, President Bush announced
plans to mobilize federal and local prosecutors who would focus
exclusively on gun-related crimes.
(AP, 5/14/02)

2001 Jul 1, In Michigan a state
law went into effect that allowed virtually any gun owner to carry a
concealed weapon in public.
(SFC, 9/12/01, p.C6)

2001 Jul 9, The Bush
administration announced that it opposed a UN draft to restrict the
sale of small arms. The US was the leading exporter of small arms.
(SFC, 7/10/01, p.A8)

2001 US Attorney Gen. John
Ashcroft proclaimed that the 2nd Amendment refers to individuals
rather than groups aligning himself with gun-rights advocates.
(WSJ, 12/16/03, p.A4)

2002 Nay, Bernard Kerik, a NYC
police commissioner, joined the board of stun-gun manufacturer Taser
Int’l. In 2004 Kerik was appointed by Pres. Bush to take over the
Dept. of Homeland Security.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.A8)

2002 Aug 5, The coral-encrusted
gun turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was raised from the
floor of the Atlantic, nearly 140 years after the historic warship
sank during a storm.
(AP, 8/5/03)

2002 Aug 18, US federal agents
said they had seized over 2,300 unregistered missiles at a
counter-terrorism school, High Energy Access Tools (HEAT), in
Roswell, New Mexico, that was training students from Arab countries
and arrested its Canadian leader.
(Reuters, 8/18/02)(WSJ, 8/19/02, p.A1)

2003 Jan 1, In Canada a new gun
law came into effect that required the registration of all rifles
and shotguns.
(AP, 1/2/03)

2003 Apr 26, Charlton Heston
(78), diagnosed with Alzheimer's, stepped down as president of
the NRA and Kayne Robinson took over.
(SSFC, 4/27/03, A8)

2003 Apr, Officials at the
Iraqi Embassy in Prague handed over weapons to Czech authorities.
Iraqi spies had used a diplomatic vehicle to smuggle in the weapons
for an attack on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The weapons
included an RPG-7 anti-tank missile, six machine guns and
ammunition.
(AP, 11/30/09)

2003 Dec 22, Brazil's Pres.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed a sweeping gun-control law in an
effort to rein in what he called "an epidemic of murder by
firearms."
(AP, 12/23/03)

2003 Nobel Peace Laureates led
by Oscar Arias of Costa Rica and a coalition of pressure groups
under the Control Arms Campaign aimed to secure an int’l. treaty to
regulate the global trade in weapons.
(Econ, 6/30/12,
p.63)(http://controlarms.org/about-controlarms)

2004 Feb 23, James Joseph
Minder (74) resigned as chairman of Smith & Wessen Holding Corp.
following revelations that he had served years in prison for armed
robbery in Michigan, where he was once known as the "Shotgun
Bandit."
(WSJ, 3/8/04, p.A1)

2004 Apr, Bangladesh police in
Chittagong intercepted a shipment from China of rifles, submachine
guns, hand grenades and more valued at $5 million. The weapons were
intended for rebels in India’s Assam state. In 2014 a trial court
sentenced 14 men to death on smuggling charges.
(SFC, 2/20/14, p.40)

2004 May 22, The Frazier
Historical Arms Museum opened in Louisville, Ky. It focused on the
evolution of armaments and the historical events in which they were
used.
(WSJ, 6/16/04, p.D8)(www.frazierarmsmuseum.org/)

2004 Sep 13, The US ban on
assault rifles, signed in 1994 by Pres. Clinton, expired. The
expiration means firearms like AK-47s, Uzis and TEC-9s can now be
legally bought.
(SFC, 9/10/04, p.A1)(AP, 9/13/04)

2004 Dec 14, It was reported
that air cargo planes used by American subcontractors in Iraq were
linked to Victor bout, a reputed Russian arms trafficker. The 2005
film “Lord of War" was a loose portrayal of Bout’s exploits.
(SFC, 12/14/04, p.A3)(Econ, 10/2/10, p.65)

2004 The Utah Legislature
passed a law requiring the Univ. of Utah to lift a ban against
students and employees carrying firearms.
(WSJ, 5/24/04, p.A1)

2004 R.L. Wilson authored Silk
and Steel: Women at Arms," an account about women and firearms
throughout history.
(SFC, 3/26/04, p.F1)

2005 Mar 15, The US charged 18
people with a scheme to smuggle shoulder-fired missiles and other
military gear from former Soviet states. One person was still at
large.
(WSJ, 3/16/05, p.A1)

2005 May 17, Russia and
Venezuela signed a contract for 100,000 Russian assault rifles to be
provided to the Latin American nation.
(AP, 5/18/05)

2005 Nov 8, SF voters rejected
Prop B, which would have allowed $208 million in general obligation
bonds for street and sidewalk improvements; Prop A passed for
capital improvements in the SF Community College District; Prop H
won making it illegal for city residents to possess handguns; Prop F
won ending rotating closure of firehouses. Phil Ting, incumbent
Assessor-Recorder, won his election bid. In 2008 an Appeals court
agreed with 2006 ruling that local governments have no authority
under California law to prevent people from owning pistols.
(SFC, 11/9/05, p.B3)(SFC, 1/10/08, p.B3)

2005 Killings with guns in the
US numbered around 14,000 for this year. There were another 16,000
suicides by firearm and 650 fatal accidents.
(Econ, 4/21/07, p.11)

2006 Feb 21, Taser Intl. said
it is working to deliver electricity to the human body using
12-guage shotgun shells. Test models of the XREP reached 100 feet.
The US military challenged the company to extend the range to 330
feet.
(SFC, 2/22/06, p.A2)

2006-2010 Mexico seized some 55,000 assault
weapons, most of which were bought legally in the United States.
(Econ, 10/16/10, p.16)

2007 Feb 15, It was reported
that shooting ranges continued to operate in Cambodia despite
government cancellation of licenses in 1997. Tourists were
able to fire 30 rounds with an AK-47 for $30. Other offers included
tossing grenades at chickens for $200 and killing a cow with a
rocket-propelled grenade for $555.
(SFC, 2/15/07, p.14)

2007 Apr 16, Shootings in a
dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech left 32 people dead. Two people
died in a dorm room, and 31 others were killed in Norris Hall,
including the gunman, who put a bullet in his head. At least 15
people were hurt, some seriously. Two professors from India and
Israel were among the dead at the Virginia Tech shooting, the
deadliest in US history. The gunman was a South Korean national
named Cho Seung-Hui (23). Cho was an undergraduate student in his
senior year majoring in English who lived on campus. His residence
was in Centerville, Virginia, and he had resident alien status.
Between shootings Seung-Hui took time to e-mail videos, photos and
writings to NBC. Virginia law allowed Cho to buy one gun each month.
(AP, 4/16/07)(AP, 4/17/07)(AFP, 4/17/07)(WSJ,
4/19/07, p.A1)(Econ, 4/21/07, p.27)

2007 Aug 28, The annual Small
Arms Survey said there are nine guns for every 10 people in the
United States, with about 270 million firearms in circulation.
Worldwide, civilians now have access to 650 million small arms, from
handguns to semiautomatic rifles, an arsenal that far outstrips what
is held by police and militaries.
(AP, 8/29/07)

2008 Mar 6, Viktor Bout, a
suspected Russian arms dealer, was arrested at a five-star hotel in
downtown Bangkok on allegations that he supplied Colombian rebels
with arms and explosives. He had been accused of flouting UN
embargoes and was wanted by Interpol.
(AP, 3/6/08)

2008 Mar 20, In North Carolina
Darryl Turner was killed after being shocked by a police officer’s
Taser. In 2011 a jury ordered Taser Int’l. to pay Turner’s family
$10 million. Lawyers said the company had failed to warn that a
Taser shot near the heart poses a substantial risk of cardiac
arrest.
(SFC, 7/21/11, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/3homyou)

2008 Apr 9, Thai police dropped
charges against Viktor Bout (41), a Russian man accused of being one
of the world's most prolific black market arms dealers, saying they
will proceed with hearings to extradite him to the United States.
(AP, 4/9/08)

2008 Apr 18,
South Africa's main transport union thwarted the delivery of a
controversial shipment of Chinese arms destined for Zimbabwe, saying
its workers would not offload the cargo. The Chinese ship left the
South African harbor and headed for neighboring Mozambique. Angola
and Mozambique said the ship is not welcome. China defended the
cargo against international criticism.
(AFP, 4/18/08)(AP, 4/19/08)(AFP, 4/22/08)(SFC,
4/23/08, p.A2)

2008 Apr 24, China said a
shipment of arms bound for Zimbabwe will be recalled after South
African workers refused to unload the vessel and other neighboring
countries barred it from their ports.
(Reuters, 4/24/08)

2008 Jun 26, The US Supreme
Court (DC v Heller) ruled 5-4 that Americans have a right to own
guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first major
pronouncement on gun rights in US history.
(AP, 6/26/08)(Econ, 7/3/10, p.29)

2008 Aug 28, Grant Wilkinson
(34) was jailed for life for running Britain’s biggest-ever gun
factory which converted dozens of replica submachine guns into
deadly weapons used in nine gangland murders. He legally bought 90
replica Mac-10s in 2004, saying they were for use on the set of the
James Bond film "Casino Royale" and paying 55,000 pounds in cash.
(AFP, 8/28/08)

2008 Sep 5, An Israeli defense
official said Israel has allowed Palestinian security forces in the
West Bank to receive a shipment of about 1,000 Kalashnikov rifles
and tens of thousands of bullets in a step aimed at bolstering the
moderate Palestinian government there. The weapons shipment reached
the Palestinians through Jordan about one week ago.
(AP, 9/5/08)

2008 Sep 23, Mexico said it
plans to search 10 percent of all vehicles entering the country from
the United States in an effort to curb arms smuggling.
(AP, 9/24/08)

2008 Sep 29, US warships and
helicopters surrounded a hijacked cargo ship loaded with Sudan-bound
tanks and other arms to keep the weapons from falling "into the
wrong hands." The shipment of 33 Russian-designed tanks, rifles and
ammunition on the Ukrainian-operated Faina was headed for Sudan, not
Kenya as previously claimed by Kenyan officials.
(AP, 9/29/08)

2008 Oct 26, In Massachusetts
Christopher Bizilj died after accidentally shooting himself in the
head with an Uzi submachine gun. In 2011 gun fair organizer Edward
Fleury was cleared of charges of furnishing machine guns to minors
during the gun fair in Westfield.
(www.mahalo.com/christopher-bizilj)(SFC, 1/15/11,
p.A4)

2008 Alexander Rose authored
“American Rifle: A Biography."
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.96)
2008 The US signed weapons
agreements valued a $37.8 billion, or 68.4% of all business in the
global arms bazaar, up from $25.4 billion in 2007. Italy was 2nd
with $3.7 billion and Russia 3rd with %3.5 billion.
(SFC, 9/7/09, p.A3)
2008 In Australia a video was
made showing an unarmed, dark-skinned man, who refused to undergo a
strip search in a Perth detention facility, screaming in apparent
agony after being zapped with a stun gun eight times while
surrounded by nine police officers. He was stunned another five
times off-camera. The video was made public in 2010 as an example of
the wrongful use of a stun gun.
(AP, 10/5/10)
2008 Britain’s National
Ballistics Intelligence Survey (NABIS) was set up to identify guns
and bullets as the number of shootings rose.
(Econ, 10/5/13, p.61)
2008 The assets of Zastava, a
Serbian maker of Yugo cars and Kalashnikov rifles, were transferred
to a new company, Fiat Automobili Srbija (FAS).
(Econ, 11/2/13, p.70)

2009 Feb 12, Canada said its
federal police will no longer use stun guns against suspects merely
resisting arrest or refusing to cooperate because the guns can cause
death. At least 20 Canadians have died after being zapped by stun
guns.
(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A4)

2009 Jan 11, A US federal rule
took effect allowing visitors to carry a loaded gun into a park or
wildlife refuge as long as the person had a permit for a concealed
weapon and the state where the park or refuge was located allowed
concealed firearms. Previously, guns in parks had been severely
restricted. The Bush administration had issued the gun rule in
December in response to letters from half the Senate asking
officials to lift the restrictions on guns in parks that were
adopted by the Reagan administration in the early 1980s. On March 19
a US district Judge blocked the rule.
(SFC, 3/20/09, p.A8)

2009 Feb 18, Fifty-one
Democrats and 2 Republicans, sent a letter to President Barack Obama
urging him to enforce a ban on importing assault weapons, saying
many such guns are later smuggled south to arm Mexico's ruthless
drug cartels. The ban was implemented under the administrations of
Pres. George H.W. Bush and Pres. Bill Clinton, and the US government
can enforce it under provisions of the 1968 Gun Control Act. But the
US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has
quietly abandoned the ban in recent years.
(AP, 2/18/09)(AP, 2/24/09)

2009 Feb 25, Russian news
agencies quoted Chief Military Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky as saying
that his office has exposed an attempt by military officers to
smuggle $18 million worth of stolen Russian weapons to China via
Tajikistan.
(AP, 2/25/09)

2009 Mar 15, Germany's
chancellor Angela Merkel called for greater government supervision
of gun owners after a school shooting last week that killed 15
people.
(AP, 3/15/09)

2009 Apr 17, A US federal judge
sentenced John Philip Hernandez of Houston to 8 years in prison for
buying military-style firearms and that ended up in the hands of
Mexico’s drug cartels. Prosecutors said Hernandez led a group that
purchased 339 weapons over 15 months.
(SFC, 4/18/09, p.A4)

2009 May 20, The US House
passed legislation imposing new rules on credit card companies.
Attached to the legislation was a bill allowing people to bring
concealed and loaded guns into US national parks. Pres. Obama was
expected to sign the legislation this week.
(SFC, 5/21/09, p.A4)

2009 Jun 4, In Tennessee
handguns will soon be allowed in bars and restaurants under a new
law passed by state legislators who voted to override Democratic
Gov. Phil Bredesen's veto. The legislation takes effect July 14 and
retains an existing ban on consuming alcohol while carrying a
handgun. Restaurant owners can still opt to ban weapons from their
establishments.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 4, Guatemala's
anti-drug prosecutor said that thousands of bullets and grenades
that were part of a Mexican drug cartel's weapons cache belong to
the Guatemalan army. In the April weapons seizure, police also found
eight anti-personnel mines, 11 M60 machine guns, bullet proof vests
and two armored cars that investigators say belong to the Zetas, a
group of assassins for Mexico's Gulf drug cartel.
(AP, 6/4/09)

2009 Jun 17, In Nigeria a
Ukrainian plane made an emergency landing due to technical problems
in the northern city of Kano. Eighteen crates of mines and
ammunition, destined for Equatorial Guinea, were found aboard the
aircraft. The crew and a Nigerian collaborator were detained and
soon transferred to Abuja for questioning.
(AFP, 6/22/09)

2009 Jun 21, It was reported
that handguns, rifles and bullets enter Jamaica from the US stoking
one of the world's highest murder rates.
(AP, 6/21/09)

2009 Jul 3, In Washington state
federal agents said they have arrested 31 people and busted a drug
trafficking ring that was directed by a cartel in Jalisco, Mexico.
The 2-week Operation Arctic Chill seized 23 guns including a .50
Desert Eagle pistol and an AK-47-type assault rifle.
(SFC, 7/4/09, p.A5)

2009 Jul 13, Mexico and the US
announced that they were working on a protocol for sharing
information in arms trafficking cases.
(AP, 7/14/09)(AP, 8/6/09)

2009 Aug 3, Karlheinz Schreiber
(75), a German-Canadian arms dealer and key figure in a political
party financing scandal involving former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, was
extradited to Germany from Canada to face criminal charges after
losing a decade-long court battle. He was key figure in a
funding scandal which badly damaged Chancellor Angela Merkel's
conservatives a decade ago. Schreiber was arrested in Canada about
10 years ago, and is wanted by prosecutors in Augsburg for tax
evasion, fraud and bribery.
(AP, 8/3/09)(Reuters, 8/3/09)

2009 Sep 30, In Arizona a new
law took effect allowing people with concealed weapons permits to
enter bars and restaurants, that haven’t posted signs banning guns.
Those carrying weapons would not be allowed to drink alcohol.
(SFC, 9/30/09, p.A8)

2009 Nov 2, A Thai official
said about half of Thailand's national lawmakers are taking
advantage of a new government plan allowing them to purchase guns at
a discount and receive a license to carry them anywhere.
(AP, 11/2/09)

2009 Nov 11, The Israeli
military released a series of documents and photos it said proved
Iran was behind a massive shipment of weapons Israel's navy
commandos intercepted last week. Among the arms Israel says it found
aboard the vessel were 9,000 mortar bombs, 3,000 Katyusha rockets,
3,000 gun shells, 20,000 grenades and over a half million rounds of
small arms ammunition.
(AP, 11/11/09)

2009 Nov 11, Venezuelan
authorities destroyed more than 30,000 illegal firearms as part of
an effort to combat soaring crime. The government stopped releasing
complete annual murder figures in 2005, but in 2008 the Justice
Ministry said homicides averaged 152 a week, or roughly 7,900 for 12
months.
(AP, 11/11/09)

2009 Nov 20, A US judge blocked
a Tennessee law that allowed people to bring handguns into
restaurants and bars.
(Reuters, 11/23/09)

2009 Nov 20, Lester Shubin
(84), former US Justice Dept. researcher, died at his home in
Virginia. In the 1970s he began developing Kevlar, a new DuPont
fabric invented in 1965, into body armor for police and soldiers.
DuPont had intended Kevlar to replace steel belting on tires and
began marketing it in 1971. By the end of 2009 bulletproof vests had
saved the lives of over 3,000 law enforcement officers.
(SFC, 11/28/09, p.C4)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.E2)

2009 Dec 7, Kenyan police
arrested a suspected weapons smuggler with up to 100,000 bullets and
an assortment of guns, a huge cache in a country with stringent gun
laws.
(AP, 12/8/09)

2009 In Arizona a field office
of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
decided that agents would allow “straw purchasers" to buy guns from
American shops in “Operation Fast and Furious," hoping the guns
might later provide evidence in bigger cases. In 2010 Border patrol
agent Brian Terry was shot dead in a firefight and 2 rifles
recovered at the scene were from the operation.
(Econ, 1/21/12, p.34)

2010 Jan 6, Gilbert Arenas, a
Washington DC Wizards basketball guard, was suspended indefinitely
without pay by NBA commissioner David Stern, for carrying guns into
the Wizards' locker room. With each game he misses, Arenas will lose
about $147,200 of the $16.2 million he will earn in the second
season of a six-year, $111 million contract. The punishment came on
his 28th birthday.
(AP, 1/7/10)

2010 Jan 10, About 50,000
Philippine policemen began enforcing a 5-month ban on carrying guns
in public in hopes of avoiding bloodshed in the buildup to May
elections, arresting 18 violators at checkpoints across the country.
(AP, 1/10/10)

2010 Feb 1, It was reported
that Cuba has declared a two-month amnesty for citizens to register
unlicensed guns. Starting Feb. 12, Cubans will have the "exceptional
and one-time only" chance to register their guns with police, and
will be allowed to keep them provided they are over 18 and have
passed the proper tests administered at police stations.
(AP, 2/1/10)

2010 Feb 11, The US military
used a laser gun aboard a Boeing 747 jumbo jet to shoot down a
missile near Point Mugu, Ventura County, Ca. The airborne laser
program began in 1996 and has cost billion of dollars.
(SFC, 2/13/10, p.A6)

2010 Apr 15, In the San
Francisco Bay Area BART officials stripped officers of Tasers days
after a sergeant fired his stun gun at a boy (13) on his bicycle
fleeing from an altercation with police in Richmond. Bay Area Rapid
Transit police had begun using Tasers in December, 2008.
(SFC, 4/16/10, p.A1)

2010 Apr 16, Arizona Gov. Jan
Brewer signed into law a bill making Arizona the third state
allowing people to carry a concealed weapon without requiring a
permit.
(AP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 16, US federal
prosecutors in North Carolina charged Gary Jackson, the former
president of Blackwater Worldwide, and 4 other senior company
officials with weapons violations and making false statements. A 15
count indictment charged that they tried to hide purchases of
weapons and trying to hide gifts of expensive weapons to Jordanian
officials as the company tried to win contracts.
(SFC, 4/17/10, p.A5)

2010 Apr 30, Panama police
found an arsenal of assault rifles, grenades and almost a half
million rounds of ammunition at the home of Professor Vinicio
Jimenez, a Guatemalan-born sociology professor. Their raid netted 47
assault rifles, 24 machine pistols, 487,900 rounds of ammunition and
almost 4,000 grenades and grenade-style munitions.
(AP, 5/1/10)

2010 May 11, Mohamed Ibrahim,
an Egyptian-American university botany professor teaching in the
United States, was arrested at Cairo airport after arriving on a
direct flight from New York carrying two pistols, 250 bullets, two
swords and 11 knives in his luggage.
(Reuters, 5/12/10)

2010 Jun 28, The Supreme Court
held that Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense
anywhere they live. The court, in the case of McDonald v. City of
Chicago, forever changed the terms of debate over the right to bear
arms. The 5-4 vote extended principles the court laid out in 2008,
when it struck down a handgun ban in Washington, D.C.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100628/pl_ynews/ynews_pl2876)(AP,
6/29/10)

2010 Jul 2, The Chicago City
Council approved what city officials said is the strictest handgun
ordnance in the US.
(SFC, 7/3/10, p.A4)

2010 Aug 18, Officials with
Nigeria's security services say they've intercepted 52 Kalashnikov
rifles and tens of thousands of ammunition rounds heading for Kos,
an area that has been the scene of religious violence. They said
five men were arrested for trying to bring the weapons from
neighboring Chad.
(AP, 8/18/10)

2010 Oct 5, US ATF deputy
director Kenneth Melson and Mexico Attorney General Arturo Chavez
signed a memorandum of understanding that will increase to 30 a
month the number of people trained to use the program, known as
eTrace, an electronic database that can trace the manufacture,
import, sale and ownership of guns.
(AP, 10/6/10)

2010 Oct 26, Yemen ordered the
confiscation of all firearms in the possession of its citizens after
canceling weapons' licenses not carrying the Interior Minister's
signature. Some 50 million firearms are thought to be in the
possession of Yemen's estimated 23 million people.
(AP, 10/26/10)

2010 Oct 27, Nigerian officials
allowed journalists to see the 107 mm rockets, rifle rounds and
other weapons seized at Apapa Port. Authorities said the shipment
also contained grenades, explosives, mortars and possibly rocket
launchers. However, journalists visiting the holding yard just
inside of the port's main gate did not see those weapons. the
manifest for the weapons described the shipment as "packages of
glasswool and pallets of stone." The next day customs officials said
the shipment of 13 containers came from a ship that had just left
India and investigators continued to trace the weapons' origins.
(AP, 10/27/10)(AP, 10/28/10)

2010 Oct 28, Israeli officials
said that the military-grade armaments seized at a shipping terminal
in Nigeria came from Iran and were bound for the Hamas-controlled
Gaza Strip. On Oct 30 an international shipping company said the
weapons cache originally came from Iran. Last week, the Iranian
shipper filed a request for the containers to be picked up again and
this time shipped to the West African nation of Gambia.
(AP, 10/28/10)(AP, 10/30/10)

2010 Nov 3, In Colorado Richard
Paul (34) was arrested and federal agents seized five pounds of C-4
military explosives from his home in Durango. In Las Vegas Andrew
Kaufman (36) was arrested. In San Diego Navy SEAL Nicholas Bickle
(33) was arrested. They were accused of conspiring to smuggle and
sell weapons to an undercover federal agent in Nevada and Colorado.
Bickle, his close friend Paul, and their associate Kaufman allegedly
sold machine guns for $1,300 to $2,400 each, and handguns for $300
to an undercover federal agent who told them they would be shipped
to Mexico.
(AP, 11/4/10)

2010 Nov 11, A Nigerian
government report identified Iranians Azimi Agajany and Sayed Akbar
Tahmaesebi as the men who organized a shipment of arms through a
Tehran-based company called International Trading and General
Construction. The arms containers sat at Lagos' busy Apapa port from
July until Oct. 26, when Nigerian security agents carried out a raid
and discovered the weapons inside.
(AP, 11/11/10)

2010 Nov 16, Viktor Bout (43),
a suspected Russian arms dealer dubbed the "Merchant of Death," was
flown out of Thailand to face trial in the United States following a
long legal battle and fierce opposition from Moscow.
(AFP, 11/16/10)

2010 Nov 24, Nigeria said it
has seized another illegal arms shipment at its main port, including
pistols and military vehicles, weeks after the discovery of a
weapons cache sent from Iran. The military items which were packed
inside a vehicle painted in army green. The illegal arms shipment
came from Belgium through Germany,
(AFP, 11/24/10)(AFP, 11/25/10)

2010 Dec 1, It was reported
that the Pentagon has rolled out prototypes of a programmable
"smart" grenade launcher, a shoulder-fired weapon that uses
microchipped ammunition to target and kill the enemy, even when the
enemy is hidden behind walls or other cover.
(AFP, 12/1/10)

2010 Dec 12, The Washington
Post reported that 8 out of the 12 top US gun dealers whose products
fuel Mexico's drug violence are located in the state of Texas. 3
others were in Arizona, and one was in California. There are 3,800
gun retailers in Texas, 300 in Houston alone.
(AFP, 12/12/10)

2010 Dec 10, The US Navy
completed its latest test of an electromagnetic rail gun at the
naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va. The gun generated a
record 33 megajoules of force out of the barrel and sent a 20-pound
slug of aluminum at 7 times the speed of sound. The electric gun was
able to send a projectile over 100 miles.
(SFC, 12/15/10, p.A17)

2010 Dec 16, In California
Rohayent Gomez (13) was shot and paralyzed by police officer Victor
Abarca as the boy held a replica gun. In 2012 a jury ruled that the
LAPD must pay $24 million to Gomez.
(SSFC, 12/16/12, p.A12)

2010 California’s Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger signed a law limiting handgun ammunition sales. It
was to take effect in February, 2011, but was blocked by a Superior
court judge in Fresno. In 2013 a state appeals court barred
enforcement of the law.
(SFC, 11/8/13, p.D6)

2011 Jan 25, A federal
indictment was unsealed in Phoenix, Az., and charged 20 people for
participating in a ring that bought more than 700 guns to be
smuggled into Mexico for use by a drug cartel. Police arrested 17
suspects in a multi-agency operation across the Phoenix valley.
Three other suspects remained at large.
(AP, 1/26/11)(Reuters, 1/26/11)

2011 Feb 8, Guy Savage (42),
owner of Nashville-based Sabre Defense Industries LLC, was detained
in London after armed officers shot out the tires of his Mercedes.
He was wanted by US authorities investigating illegal weapons
trading between 2003 and 2009.
(AP, 2/15/11)(http://tinyurl.com/5v44er3)

2011 Feb 13, Switzerland, which
has the highest rate of suicide by firearms in Europe, voted to hold
fast to its long-standing tradition of letting citizens keep
army-issue weapons at home.
(AFP, 2/13/11)

2011 Feb 17, Federal
prosecutors in Arizona said two illegal immigrants from Mexico, Jose
Beltran-Bermudez and Yazmin Arvayo-Palafox, have been indicted after
they were found to possess a combined 222 assault rifles and 5
pistols that authorities say were headed to Mexico.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 17, US Federal
authorities said police have arrested nine people and seized 300
firearms, including assault rifles, in a raid targeting an arms ring
that allegedly sold weapons to Mexican drug traffickers. Operation
Too Hot to Handle netted a haul of around 300 guns, mostly
Kalashnikov-type rifles and semi-automatic pistols, seized in
Arizona, Texas and Mexico.
(Reuters, 2/17/11)

2011 Feb 21, In Daly City, Ca.,
patrol officers heard shots fired coming from 26 West Market Street.
Officers saw an adult male subject grab an adult female around the
neck and pull her into the residence. After a six hour stand off,
the Hostage Negotiation Team convinced the subjects to leave the
residence. Both subjects were arrested. A total of 26 firearms were
seized from the residence. 10 of those firearms were considered
assault weapons.
(Daly City Crime Alert and Community Bulletin
02-28-11)

2011 Feb 23, Senegal said it
will cut diplomatic ties with Iran after an investigation that
showed that a seized Iranian arms shipment was intended for rebels
fighting Senegalese troops. The arms shipment was discovered in
Nigeria in October.
(AP, 2/23/11)

2011 Feb 28, In Texas 3 people
suspected of smuggling guns to Mexico were arrested in a Dallas
suburb after federal investigators traced the gun used in the
killing of a US agent in Mexico to one of them.
(AP, 2/28/11)

2011 Mar 8, Legislators from
all of Mexico's three major parties in congress called for a joint
US-Mexico working group to examine accusations that US federal
agents allowed hundreds of guns to flow into Mexico.
(AP, 3/8/11)

2011 Mar 10, The US Attorney's
office in New Mexico said the mayor of Columbus, Eddie Espinoza, the
town's police chief Angelo Vega, and village trustee Blas Gutierrez
were among those arrested on an 84-count indictment for allegedly
trafficking around 200 guns to Mexico. In July Espinoza pleaded
guilty to federal gun smuggling charges and faced 65 years in
prison. In August Vega pleaded guilty.
(Reuters, 3/11/11)(SFC, 7/14/11, p.A6)(SFC,
8/27/11, p.A4)

2011 Mar 19, An Iranian plane
bound for Syria landed in Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakir
for a search of its cargo. The plane carried light weapons,
including automatic rifles, rocket launchers and mortars, which were
seized. The plane returned to Iran March 22 without the seized
cargo.
(AP, 3/23/11)

2011 Mar 24, Dubai police said
the Gulf emirate has seized thousands of small arms being smuggled
in a sea cargo shipment bound for Yemen. The weapons were discovered
in a Dubai warehouse about two weeks ago. The shipment originated in
Turkey.
(AP, 3/24/11)

2011 Apr 28, Arizona Gov. Jan
brewer signed a bill designating the colt Single-Action Army
revolver as the state’s first official firearm. Brewer also signed a
bill authorizing the construction of a fence along the state's
portion of the US-Mexico border, either with other states or by
itself. He also signed a bill approving special new license plates,
including a “Don’t Tread On Me" slogan to commemorate the Tea Party.
(SFC, 4/29/11, p.A7)(AP, 4/29/11)(SFC, 4/30/11,
p.A6)

2011 Apr 29, Mexican federal
police discovered a basement arsenal hidden behind the mirrors of a
home gym in Ciudad Juarez that included three anti-aircraft guns,
dozens of grenades, a grenade launcher, AK-47s and other
high-powered weapons.
(AP, 4/30/11)

2011 Apr, Richmond, Ca., police
officers Danny Harris (31) and Ray Thomas (34) quit following the
report of an FBI probe regarding a security company they ran on the
side. They had tried to frame their supervisor by having him lured
into an extramarital affair and paid private investigator
Christopher Butler $1,800 to create a video using a decoy. On March
7, 2012, Thomas admitted to his role in trying to thwart a federal
grand jury’s inquiry into their business. On March 9 Harris pleaded
guilty to buying firearms for young men at his security firm. On Aug
21 Harris was sentenced to 6 months in a half-way house. Thomas was
sentenced to 6 months of home detention.
(SFC, 2/29/12, p.C1)(SFC, 3/10/12, p.C2)(SFC,
8/22/12, p.C2)

2011 May 6, Brazil’s Justice
Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo launched a disarmament campaign hoping
to take more than 1 million guns off the streets by the end of the
year.
(AP, 5/7/11)

2011 May 11, Tunisian police
arrested a Libyan man in a car packed with Kalashnikov rifle
cartridges in the south of the country, 80 km (50 miles) from the
border with Libya. Authorities had also arrested a second man, an
Algerian, who was transporting grenades. It appeared the vehicles
were traveling from Libya.
(AP, 5/11/11)

2011 Jun 8, Jorge Hank Rhon,
former mayor of Tijuana, Mexico, and long rumored to be involved in
money laundering and other criminal activities, faced charges after
police raided his home and found a large cache of illegal weapons.
(AP, 6/8/11)

2011 Jun 14, In Mexico charges
against a former Tijuana mayor, allegedly caught with 88 guns at his
home, were dismissed. The next day Assistant Attorney General
Patricia Bugarin said the judge who freed gambling magnate and
former mayor Jorge Hank Rhon acted with "bias and subjectivity" in
dismissing the federal charges. Police said 2 dead men have been
found hanging by their hands off highway bridges around the city of
Monterrey in less than 24 hours.
(AP, 6/15/11)

2011 Jun 30, Ohio Republican
Governor John Kasich signed into law a bill that allows gun owners
in the state to carry concealed weapons into bars and other places
where alcohol is served. The law also prohibits gun owners from
consuming alcohol or being under the influence of alcohol or drugs
when they carry their weapons into bars.
(AP, 6/30/11)

2011 Jul 25, Israeli security
forces intercepted on the Dead Sea carrying assault rifles and
ammunition from Jordan.
(AP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 25, Sierra Leone said
it has launched a five-year plan to regulate the sale and use of
small arms, which still abound a decade after the end of a civil
war, causing insecurity.
(AFP, 7/25/11)

2011 Aug 31, In North Miami
Beach, Florida, a man carrying what was later determined to be a toy
rifle was shot and killed by police.
(AP, 9/1/11)

2011 Sep 22, In Brazil a
10-year-old student shot and wounded his teacher with a pistol, then
killed himself with two bullets into his head at a public school in
Sao Caetano do Sul, an industrial suburb on the outskirts of Sao
Paulo.
(AP, 9/22/11)

2011 Oct 7, A federal jury in
Las Vegas convicted Navy SEAL Nicholas Bickle on charges that he led
a scheme to sell machine guns and explosives from Iraq and
Afghanistan in the US. On July 17, 2012, Bickle was sentenced to 17½
years in prison.
(SFC, 10/8/11, p.A5)(SFC, 7/18/12, p.A8)

2011 Nov 10, In Germany some
300 police officers searched the headquarters of Heckler & Koch
amid allegations the German arms maker bribed Mexican officials in
connection with arms deliveries between 2005 and 2010. Heckler &
Koch was also under investigation following the discovery of its
assault rifles in Libya.
(AP, 11/10/11)

2011 Nov 11, A British judge
sentenced Steven Cardwell, a British man, to at least 11 years in
prison for selling handguns smuggled into the country by Steven
Greenoe, a former US Marine.
(AP, 11/11/11)

2011 Nov 28, In Texas Dakota
Meyer, a former US Marine and Medal of Honor recipient, sued BAE
Systems claiming he was defamed and ridiculed after expressing
concerns in an e-mail over the possible sale of a high-tech sniper
scope to Pakistan.
(SFC, 12/1/11, p.A10)

2011 Adam Winkler, a
constitutional-law scholar at U.C.L.A., authored "Gunfight: The
Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America."
(www.amazon.com/Gunfight-Battle-over-Right-America/dp/0393077411)
2011 ATK, an American firm, and
Heckler & Koch, a German one, developed the XM25, a new gun that
fires 25mm rounds programmed to exploded at a fixed distance.
(Econ, 1/14/12,
p.76)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM25_CDTE)
2011 India's NIA charged
Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich and three others in 2011 with criminal
conspiracy to wage war against the Indian government. The National
Investigation Agency said the men had sold arms to Naga rebels who
have been fighting the central government for more than 50 years,
despite a 1997 a cease-fire. Wuthikorn was arrested in Thailand in
2013 and extradited to India in 2014.
(AP, 3/31/14)

2012 Jan 4, In Texas Jaime
Gonzalez (15) was shot 3 times by police in a hallway at Cummings
Middle School in Brownsville after he refused to drop a pellet gun.
(AP, 1/5/12)

2012 Feb 7, In Jamaica roughly
2,000 firearms were melted down in a blazing furnace as part of an
effort designed to combat gun trafficking and corruption while
reducing violent crime.
(AP, 2/7/12)

2012 Mar 5, The Colorado
Supreme Court ruled that the University of Colorado overstepped its
authority when the school's board of regents imposed a ban on the
carrying of concealed weapons at its four campuses.
(Reuters, 3/5/12)

2012 Mar 22, UN envoy Michael
von der Schulenburg called on the impoverished Sierra Leone
government to explain why it imported several million dollars worth
of assault weapons last January for a police paramilitary wing. A
leaked shipping bill indicated the arms included machine guns and
even grenade launchers.
(AFP, 3/22/12)

2012 Apr 4, Sierra Leone's
government defended a multi-million dollar weapons shipment as part
of routine procurement, after the United Nations called for an
explanation over the import.
(AFP, 4/4/12)

2012 Apr 5, In NYC Russian arms
dealer Viktor Bout (45), dubbed the Merchant of Death, received the
mandatory minimum 25 years in prison in a case that demonstrated the
US government's determination to bring him to justice. The judge
also ordered a $15 million forfeiture.
(AFP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 5, Nigerian
authorities said they have recovered a cache of arms, including
explosives and rocket launchers, in two separate raids in the
restive northern city of Gombe and arrested six suspects.
(AFP, 4/6/12)

2012 Apr 18, Mexican
authorities seized 268,000 rounds of assault rifle ammunition in a
US truck at a border crossing in Ciudad Juarez. Dallas truck driver
Jabin Bogan was transporting a load of ammunition to a Phoenix gun
shop when he said he made a wrong turn, causing him to cross the
border into Mexico. Jabin was released on Nov 23 after his mother
paid a fine.
(SFC, 4/20/12, p.A2)(ABC News, 11/25/12)

2012 May 11, India agreed to a
$560-million deal to buy 145 howitzer guns from BAE Systems of the
United States as it upgrades its antiquated military hardware.
(AFP, 5/12/12)

2012 May 31, In Wisconsin
Darius Simmons (13), a black boy, was shot dead by his white
neighbor John Henry Spooner (75) after having stolen four guns from
Spooner. On July 17, 2013, a jury found Spooner guilty of
first-degree murder.
(SFC, 7/18/13, p.A7)

2012 Jun 28, The US House of
Representatives voted 255-67 to make Attorney General Eric Holder
the first sitting attorney general to be held in contempt of
Congress for withholding documents requested as part of an
investigation into a botched gun-running operation.
(SFC, 6/29/12, p.A10)

2012 Aug 23, Kenya's government
said it will conduct a countrywide operation to disarm all
communities with illegal weapons.
(AP, 8/23/12)

2012 Aug 31, In New Jersey
ex-Marine Terence Tyler (23) opened fire with a hand gun and an
assault rifle at a supermarket in Old Bridge Township and killed 2
co-workers before killing himself.
(SFC, 9/1/12, p.A1)

2012 Sep 10, A Quebec, Canada,
court accused PM Stephen Harper’s government of violating the
principles of Canadian federalism by refusing to hand over gun
registry data for Quebec.
(SFC, 9/11/12, p.A2)

2012 Sep 30, The .38-caliber
Detective Special of Bonnie Parker (d.1934) was sold at auction in
Nashua, NH, for $264,000. Clyde Barrow’s Colt .45-caliber sold for
$240,000. A .45-caliber gun once owned by Butch Cassidy sold for
$175,000.
(SFC, 10/1/12, p.A4)

2012 Oct 23, Nigerian
authorities intercepted a ship and found on board several guns and
thousands of rounds of ammunition. 15 Russian sailors were soon
charged with illegally bringing weapons into the country. All
charges against the sailors were dropped in 2013.
(Reuters, 10/8/13)

2012 Nov 6, The San Francisco
Public Utilities Commission and owners of the Pacific Rod and Gun
Club reached an agreement allowing the club to remain open for up to
2 more years at its 14-acre space on the shores of Lake Merced.
(SFC, 11/7/12, p.C2)

2012 Nov 12, Over 100 rifles,
including AK-style assault rifles, were stolen about this time from
a boxcar parked at the CSX Tilford train yard near Atlanta, Georgia.
(AP, 11/30/12)

2012 Dec 11, A federal appeals
court struck down a ban on carrying concealed weapons in Illinois,
the only remaining state where carrying concealed weapons is
entirely illegal. It gave lawmakers 180 days to write a law that
legalizes it.
(AP, 12/11/12)
2012 Dec 11, In Oregon a masked
gunman opened fire at Clackamas Town Center, a mall in suburban
Portland. Jacob Tyler Roberts (22), armed himself with an AR-15
semiautomatic rifle he stole from someone he knew, went on a rampage
that left two people dead and one injured before he killed himself.
(SFC, 12/12/12, p.A5)(AP, 12/13/12)

2012 Dec 14, Oklahoma police
arrested Sammie Eaglebear Chavez (18) on charges that he had plotted
to shoot students at Bartlesville High School.
(SSFC, 12/16/12, p.A12)

2012 Dec 15, Alabama police
shot and killed an assailant armed with an AK-47 assault rifle
following a pursuit after 3 people were killed at a trailer home in
Cleburne County.
(SSFC, 12/16/12, p.A12)

2012 Dec 19, Pres. Obama said
Vice President Joe Biden will lead an effort to craft policies to
reduce gun violence. Obama laid out a plan to reduce gun violence
amid calls for action after the massacre of 26 people including 20
children in a Connecticut elementary school.
(AP, 12/19/12)

2012 Dec 21, The National Rifle
Association said guns and police officers in all American schools
are what's needed to stop the next killer "waiting in the wings."
NRA executive chief Wayne LaPierre delivered a 25-minute tirade
against the notion that another gun law would stop killings.
(AP, 12/21/12)
2012 Dec 21, In Mexico US
Marine veteran Jon Hammar (27), jailed for months after trying to
carry a family heirloom shotgun across the border, was freed.
(AP, 12/22/12)

2012 Dec 22, Gun enthusiasts
thronged to shows around the country to buy assault weapons they
fear will soon be outlawed after a massacre of school children in
Connecticut prompted calls for tighter controls on firearms.
(Reuters, 12/22/12)

2012 Dec 26, Los Angeles police
traded gift cards for guns in a buyback program Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa announced as a crime-fighting response to the deadly
shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut.
(Reuters, 12/26/12)

2013 Jan 2, In Switzerland a
man armed with an old military rifle and a handgun shot and killed
three women and wounded two men in the village of Daillon. Police
shot and wounded the suspect after he threatened to also shoot
officers.
(AP, 1/3/13)

2013 Jan 14, Mexico's
best-known anti-violence activist and a prominent intellectual
presented a petition, signed by more than 54,000 Mexicans, to the US
embassy calling on the United States to take further steps to combat
weapons trafficking.
(AP, 1/15/13)

2013 Jan 15, New York’s Gov.
Andrew Cuomo signed the NY Safe Act, the nation’s toughest gun
restrictions and the first since the recent Connecticut school
shooting. It included an expanded assault weapon ban and mandatory
background checks for buying ammunition.
(SFC, 1/16/13, p.A6)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.30)

2013 Jan 25, In Venezuela
violence erupted at Uribana prison in the city of Barquisimeto when
groups of inmates attacked National Guard troops who were attempting
to carry out an inspection. The death toll reached 58 with some 120
wounded. Officials evacuated the prison after the riot and found 106
firearms and over 8,000 rounds of ammunition.
(AP, 1/27/13)(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A2)(SFC, 2/8/13,
p.A2)

2013 Feb 12, President Obama
made his State of the Union address. He announced plans with the EU
to pursue talks aimed at achieving an overarching trans-Atlantic
free trade deal. Obama also said that the first 34,000 troops will
leave Afghanistan within a year and more in 2014, when all foreign
combat forces are to leave the country.
(AP, 2/13/13)

2013 Feb 15, NYC officials said
its schoolteacher’s pension fund has sold its stock in companies
that manufacture guns and ammunition in response to the Dec 14,
2012, school shooting in Newtown, Conn.
(SFC, 2/16/13, p.A5)

2013 Mar 18, A new academic
study said an estimated 2.2% of all US gun sales are made to
smuggling rings that take the firearms to Mexico.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 18, The Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute, a Swedish think tank, said
China has bypassed Britain as the world's fifth largest arms
exporter.
(AP, 3/18/13)

2013 Apr 2, The 193-nation UN
General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the first treaty on the
global arms trade, which seeks to regulate the $70 billion business
in conventional arms and keep weapons out of the hands of human
rights abusers. The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) will come into legal
force 90 days after the 50th country has ratified it.
(Reuters, 4/2/13)(Econ, 4/6/13, p.69)

2013 Apr 15, Key measures of
New York's tough new gun law kicked in, with owners of firearms now
reclassified as assault weapons required to start registering the
firearms and new limits on the number of bullets allowed in
magazines.
(AP, 4/15/13)

2013 Apr 22, A West Virginia
teenager (14) returned to class wearing the same National Rifle
Association T-shirt that led to his suspension and arrest after he
refused a teacher's order last week to remove it.
(AP, 4/22/13)

2013 Apr 30, In rural Kentucky
a 5-year-old boy accidentally shot his 2-year-old sister to death
with a rifle he had received as a gift last year.
(AP, 5/1/13)

2013 May 3, In Minnesota Buford
Rogers (24) of Montevideo, was arrested and charged with one count
of being a felon in possession of a firearm. His mobile home
contained Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and firearms.
(AP, 5/7/13)

2013 May 17, California
Attorney General Kamala Harris said that a requirement for every new
semiautomatic handgun to contain “micro-stamping" technology would
be effective immediately. The gun control law was originally passed
in 2007.
(SFC, 5/18/13, p.D1)

2013 May 28, It was reported
that TrackingPoint, a startup tech company in Austin, Texas, has
started selling the most advanced long-distance rifle available on
the civilian market. Its laser and computer technology allowed a
user to hit moving targets 500 yards away.
(SFC, 5/28/13, p.D1)

2013 May 24, An anonymous
letter to NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg was opened and contained
traces of ricin. A 2nd similar letter in Washington DC at an office
used by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a nonprofit started by
Bloomberg, was opened on May 26.
(SFC, 5/30/13, p.A5)

2013 Jul 9, Illinois became the
last state in the US to allow public possession of concealed guns.
(SFC, 7/10/13, p.A4)

2013 Jul 11, Oman police said
they have seized 30,393 pistols aboard a tanker. Dubai-based
newspaper Gulf News said the ship came from Turkey and was bound for
Yemen. 9 Omanis were arrested in connection with the alleged
shipment of pistols discovered in Sohar.
(AP, 7/11/13)

2013 Aug 12, Nigeria became the
first African country to sign the UN Arms Trade Treaty marking
"resolute and unyielding" efforts to deny arms to terrorists,
pirates and bandits.
(AP, 8/13/13)

2013 Sep 19, In Chicago gunmen
used an assault-style weapon to spray a crowd watching a basketball
game at Cornell Square Park. 13 people were wounded including a boy
(3). Four Blackstones gang members, who had sought revenge against
the rival Gangster Disciples, were later arrested.
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.A5)(SFC, 9/25/13, p.A8)

2013 Oct 11, California’s Gov.
Jerry Brown approved 11 firearms measures designed to tighten
controls on ownership, storage and types of weapons and ammunition
available in the state. They included a ban on lead hunting
ammunition.
(SFC, 10/12/13, p.A1)

2013 Oct 25, British police
appeared to downplay a raid after claiming to have seized suspected
3D-printed gun parts from a shop in Manchester. Some observers
pointed out that the images released by police resembled printer
parts.
(AFP, 10/25/13)(AP, 10/25/13)

2013 Nov 16, In North Dakota
Craig Cobb was arrested along with Kynan Dutton over accusations
they were brandishing firearms and sticks and threatening residents
in the town of Leith. The white supremacists were charged on Nov 18
with terrorizing residents of Leith, where Cobb had sought to create
a white enclave. On April 29, 2014, a state judge sentenced Cobb to
four years probation but no additional jail time.
(Reuters, 11/18/13)(SFC, 4/30/14, p.A6)

2013 Nov 19, The US National
Rifle Association (NRA) sued San Francisco claiming the city
violated the constitutional right to possess guns for self defense
with a new ordnance banning possession of magazines that can hold
more than 10 rounds.
(SFC, 11/20/13, p.D3)

2013 Dec 2, French police
arrested 45 people in a vast sweep against international arms
traffickers.
(AFP, 12/2/13)

2014 Jan 12, In Afghanistan
Daniel Menard, a former Canadian brigadier-general and head of
Canadian forces in Afghanistan, was detained for alleged gun
smuggling. He was currently working for security firm Garda World.
Menard had resigned from the military after pleading guilty in 2011
to having an affair with a female corporal under his command.
(AFP, 1/30/14)

2014 Mar 3, In Michigan Raulie
Casteel was sentenced to 18-40 years in prison for shooting at two
dozen vehicles on a busy southeastern highway.
(SFC, 3/4/14, p.A5)

2014 Mar 26, Daly City
dentist Wilson Sy Lim was among 26 people arrested in a SF Bay Area
FBI sting. State Sen. Leland Yee had introduced Lim to an undercover
FBI agent as a connection for securing guns from the Philippines.
(SFC, 3/31/14, p.A8)

2014 Apr 5, Ukraine’s security
service said it has detained a 15-strong armed gang planning to
seize power in Luhansk province. Weapons seized included 300 machine
guns, an anti-tank grenade launcher and a large number of grenades.
(SSFC, 4/6/14, p.A5)

2014 Apr 13, Chinese state
media reported that authorities have seized more than 10,000 illegal
guns in the southwestern province of Guizhou, marking its largest
haul of illegal firearms. Fifteen people suspected of being part of
a criminal gang involved in the manufacturing and trafficking of
firearms were arrested.
(Reuters, 4/13/14)

2014 Apr 14, The Mexican
government said vigilante groups in the western state of Michoacan
will have to register their guns with the army by May 10. The
"self-defense" groups will have the choice of joining rural defense
corps set up under the army.
(AP, 4/15/14)

2014 Apr 23, Georgia Gov.
Nathan Deal signed legislation that will allow people to carry guns
in bars, churches and government buildings under certain conditions
as of July 1.
(SFC, 4/24/14, p.A8)

2014 Apr 25, A top El Salvador
official said Mara street gangs are arming themselves with
high-powered rifles and some gang members have tried to join the
army to get military training.
(AP, 4/25/14)

2014 Apr 29, In Georgia a FedEx
employee wearing ammunition draped across his chest opened fire at a
packaging sorting center outside Atlanta, wounding six people before
apparently committing suicide.
(SFC, 4/30/14, p.A6)

2014 May 5, Honduras detained
Capt. Robert Mayne and five members of his crew aboard the Aqua
Quest were detained in Puerto Lempira. The men were reportedly
detained for firearms violations "on the false claim that a weapon
they were carrying was an AK-47." All six men were released on June
26.
(AP, 5/30/14)(AP, 6/27/14)

2014 May 15, A US federal judge
upheld registration requirements that are part of gun laws in
Washington DC.
(SFC, 5/16/14, p.A5)

2014 May 29, A US congressional
committee reported that “Operation Choke Point," an anti-fraud
campaign of the Justice Dept., has strangled legitimate businesses
that the government objects to for ideological reasons, such as
payday lenders or gun dealers.
(Econ, 6/7/14, p.80)

2014 Jun 6, In Georgia Dennis
Marx, wielding an assault rifle and explosives, opened fire outside
a courthouse in Cumming. He wounded a deputy before he was killed in
a shootout.
(SFC, 6/7/14, p.A5)

2014 Jul 7, Chicago authorities
said the Fourth of July holiday weekend brought an explosion of
gunfire to the city, with more than 50 people shot and nine killed.
(Reuters, 7/8/14)

2014 Jul 18, California’s
Governor Jerry Brow signed a law banning the sale of single-shot
handguns that can be altered into semi-automatic weapons, handing a
modest victory to proponents of tougher gun laws while striving to
protect antique collectors.
(Reuters, 7/19/14)

2014 Jul 26, A US federal judge
ruled that a ban on citizens carrying handguns in public in the US
capital Washington DC is unconstitutional.
(AFP, 7/26/14)

2014 Jul 28, A US federal
appeals court upheld the government’s right to demand that gun
dealers in southwestern border states tell authorities if someone
buys more than two semiautomatic rifles in a five day span,
(SFC, 7/29/14, p.A5)

2014 Aug 4, Jim Brady (b.1940),
the White House Press Sec. under Ronald Reagan, died. He became an
advocate of gun control after he, Pres. Reagan and two others were
shot by John W. Hinckley Jr. on March 30, 1981.
(SFC, 8/5/14, p.A6)

2014 Aug 2, Donald Ray Morgan
(44), of Landis, NC, wanted for selling an assault rifle and other
weapons over the Internet, was intercepted at Kennedy Airport and
questioned about the Islamic State. A judge ordered him held without
bail and sent him to NC to face the gun charge.
(AP, 8/22/14)

2014 Aug 4, In Ohio John
Crawford III (22) was fatally shot by two white policemen inside a
Wal-Mart store in the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek. Police responded
after a caller said a man was waving a gun; they say Crawford
refused orders to put down an air rifle. A grand jury concluded that
the shooting was justified. On Dec 16 Crawford’s family filed a
federal lawsuit charging negligence and violation of civil rights.
(AP, 8/30/14)(SFC, 12/17/14,
p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/ksvw2z3)

2014 Aug 25, In Arizona
firing-range instructor Charles Vacca (39) was shot and killed in
the recoil of an Uzi fired by a girl (9) at the Last Stop range in
White Hills.
(SFC, 8/28/14, p.A7)

2014 Sep 23, The District of
Columbia city council reluctantly voted to allow people to carry
concealed handguns for the first time in 40 years to comply
with a court ruling that struck down the district’s ban on
carrying handguns outside the home.
(SFC, 9/24/14, p.A8)

2014 Oct 30, German’s regional
court in Wuerzburg sentenced a trucker (58) to 10 ½ years in prison
for shooting at fellow drivers more than 700 times over a five-year
period.
(AP, 10/30/14)

2014 Oct 31, It was reported
that a Pennsylvania coroner is auctioning off some 100 guns used in
suicides and accidental deaths due to a state law requiring local
governments to sell off unclaimed property.
(SFC, 10/31/14, p.A10)

2014 Nov 22, In Ohio a police
officer shot Tamir Rice (12) after the boy pulled a fake gun from
his waistband at a Cleveland playground. Rice died of his wounds the
next day. In June, 2015, affidavits were filed seeking charges
against officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback.
(SFC, 11/24/14, p.A6)(SFC, 6/12/15, p.A7)

2014 Dec 2, Kosovo authorities
destroyed more than 2,000 small arms and rifles as part of an
ongoing effort to increase security in the Balkan country.
(AP, 12/2/14)

2014 Dec 22, Federal
authorities in Atlanta charged Mark Quentin Henry (45) and four
others with taking guns aboard at least 17 commercial airliners this
year as they traveled from Atlanta to both NYC airports. 153 guns,
all bought in Georgia, were seized during a 7-month gun trafficking
probe.
(SFC, 12/24/14, p.A6)

2014 Dec 24, A new Arms Trade
Treaty (ATT), laying down international rules for the $85 billion
dollar global arms trade, went into force with campaigners vowing to
make sure it is strictly implemented. The US has signed the treaty,
but has yet to ratify it.
(AFP, 12/23/14)

2014 Dec 25, In Mexico some 100
protesters demonstrated outside the German embassy in Mexico City to
denounce what they said was the use of German-made G36 assault
rifles by police in Guerrero state. In 2010 the German government
told weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch to cease all deliveries
to Mexico amid concerns over human rights issues.
(SFC, 12/26/14, p.A7)

2014 Dec 30, In Idaho Veronica
Rutledge (29) was killed while shopping at a Walmart in Hayden when
her two-year-old son pulled a gun from her purse and shot her in the
head.
(SFC, 1/1/15, p.A7)
2014 Dec 30, Puerto Rico police
seized a record 110 weapons as part of a one-day crackdown on crime
across the US territory. Authorities also seized 47 cars during the
island-wide sweep.
(AP, 12/30/14)

2014 Turkish TV producers
created the 15-part drama “Dragunov," named after a Soviet-made
sniper rifle. They reportedly hoped it would act as a balm for
Libya’s soul as it struggles in the aftermath of Qaddafi’s rule.
(Econ, 7/19/14, p.42)

2015 Jan 14, Ohio police
arrested Christopher Lee Cornell (20) of Cincinnati outside a gun
shop after he bought two semi-automatic rifles and some 600 rounds
of ammunition. He was soon charged with plotting a jihadist attack
on Washington, DC, with pipe bombs and shooting government officials
and employees.
(SFC, 1/16/15, p.A7)(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A8)

2015 Feb, In Texas Matthew
Cisneros (13) was found dead with a fatal gunshot wound at his
family's home in Garland, with a pistol near the body. On March 23 a
12-year-old boy was taken into police custody for the homicide.
(Reuters, 3/23/15)

2015 May 18, A unanimous
Supreme Court ruled that the US government can't prevent a convicted
felon who is barred from possessing firearms from trying to sell his
guns after they are confiscated by authorities.
(AP, 5/18/15)

2015 Jun 4, Russia's Federal
Security Service (FSB) said it has broken up a ring that was
smuggling firearms into the country from Latvia. One Latvian citizen
and eight Russians were arrested in the case.
(AP, 6/4/15)